She can smile now

Cindy Sturm and Vince Wondrack started working together in 2016.

Cindy was a Bert Nash client and Vince was a SEED (Supported Employment Education Development) specialist for Bert Nash. In his role, he works with clients to help them find and maintain a job or return to school. Now they are colleagues.

Cindy became a Bert Nash peer support specialist in 2019. Peer support specialists use their own mental health experiences to help others.

She calls it her dream job.

“I’m so proud of this work,” Cindy said. “I get to help people and give them hope that recovery is possible. I share my story with others to give them inspiration, to give them a model to look at and say recovery is possible. With peer support, the stories are important.”

Cindy’s own story has spanned three decades and included many ups and downs. Along the way, there were job loses, a bad marriage and mental illness.

“I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder almost 30 years ago; I was 23,” Cindy said. “I’m a longtime consumer of mental health services.”

Through it all, she was always able to work.

“Work has always been important to my stability,” she said. “If I’m not working, I don’t do well. I get depressed and then I get anxious.”

Everything changed in 2009, though. She couldn’t work. “My world crumbled,” Cindy said.  “My symptoms were not controllable. It was all too much. I was hospitalized.”

After her discharge from the hospital, Cindy entered a six-week intensive outpatient treatment at Bert Nash, which included dialectical behavior therapy and individualized therapy.

“That’s when Bert Nash helped me the most,” Cindy said.

With the help of her therapist at the time, Cindy applied for disability.

“I stayed stuck in a loop for many years,” she said. “But through therapy and medication, I started to think there was more out there for me.”

Cindy became involved with the Bert Nash SEED program in 2014 and started working with Vince a couple of years later.

“Vince and I met weekly, generally meeting at his ‘office,’ which was the corner booth at the Sixth Street McDonald’s,” Cindy said. “He helped me with my resume, job searching and interview skills. More than that, he helped boost my self-esteem.”

“She was a very quiet person when I first met her,” Vince said. “She didn’t show very much emotion and she could be pretty negative about herself.” 

Vince helped Cindy enroll in a peer support certification course. After completing the training, she applied for a peer support position at Bert Nash. She interviewed three times, but didn’t get the job.

“Vince didn’t allow me to get down on myself,” Cindy said. “He kept me positive; he was  always there for me.”

Vince helped Cindy secure housing assistance and explore the option of going off disability and returning to work full time. Despite everything she had gone through, Cindy never gave up.

“She’s a super good person and a super worker,” Vince said. “Perseverance is the word, I think, that sticks out for her.” In May 2019, Cindy landed that dream job. She became a peer support fellow at Bert Nash, through a partnership program with the County.

“I love doing peer support,” Cindy said. “I like giving back. If I would have had someone there with me sooner, to model recovery for me, I think I would have got better a lot faster.”

Vince became that person for her, and he still is. Even now, they still have occasional check-ins.

“I told her she can walk into my office anytime she wants but now it is as a colleague,” Vince said. “When I first met her, she didn’t smile much. When I would catch her smiling, I was like, yeah, keep doing that. Cindy can smile now.”

“Today, I have a full life with friends, a support system surrounding me, and most importantly, I have the support of my family,” Cindy said. “I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for my mom and dad’s unconditional love. For that, I’m so thankful.”